Fmr. Tuskegee Airman Colonel Fitzroy Newsum passes away

He had been living in a nursing home in Centennial. He was surrounded by his family at his passing.

Newsum served in a segregated airbase in Tuskegee, Ala. in 1943 and was a founding member of the local Hubert L. "Hooks" Jones chapter of the national Tuskegee Airmen.

In 1989, he received the Brigadier General Noel F. Parish Award. The Tuskegee Airmen received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 - which Newsum was a part of. In 1991, he was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame.

He retired from the Air Force in 1970 as Vice Commander of the 381st Strategic Aerospace - now called Lockheed Martin.

Newsum was born in New York City in 1918 and was the first member of his family to be born in America. He was raised in Barbados and Trinidad, but he later returned to New York in his teens. He grew up loving planes, but he was denied entry to the U.S. Army Air Corps because of his race.

He graduated from the Tuskegee program as a multi-engine pilot in December 1943.

He is survived by his wife of more than 63 years, Joan Carney Newsum. He has four children, Brian, Dani, Eric and Gail and four grandchildren: Nicholas, McKenna, Taylor and Savannah.